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KC9DDI

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Everything posted by KC9DDI

  1. I guess my question is who is responsible for assigning labels and categories to people based on their religious/faith beliefs? And, as a followup, am I expected or obligated to care about the labels that others have tried to apply to me?
  2. The steel wool and a 6V or 9V battery is pretty safe. Roll some steel wool into the size and shape of a hot dog and hook some standard electrical wiring to each end. Using a lot of good tinder and kindling, build the fire around the steel wool. Run the electrical wiring to a hidden area with a battery, and when you're ready to start the fire just touch the wires to the battery terminal for a few seconds. Basically it will work like a car cigarette lighter - the steel wool will glow red, and the heat should ignite your kindling and get the fire going. You shouldn't have a problem with the
  3. I agree with most of the conventional wisdom here. To those who compare the "offense" with jaywalking or speeding, I'd add that violating a web site's "terms of service" is even less serious. The TOS's generally aren't legally binding. Jaywalking and speeding a few MPH over the posted limit aren't generally considered to be that serious, but they technically are illegal. Violating a TOS isn't even necessarily illegal. Its actually fairly common even for adults to "lie" about some of their personal information when putting it online. In fact, given some sites' poor security track reco
  4. There appears to be some sort of malicious JavaScript on this forum's web pages - maybe if someone could get in touch with the owner or an admin to get that looked at? This seems to happen fairly regularly on this forum, maybe its time to upgrade to newer, more secure, forum software?
  5. Out of curiosity, if there is an issue in your council at the council level, why can't the council professional staff and volunteers work their own channels through the area, region and national to resolve the issue? Surely your SE, for example, must be able to get in contact with higher-ups when necessary.
  6. UCEagle72 - Can any references to amateur radio's essential-ness in those disasters be found in any media other than those produced by ham radio groups? With no offense intended towards the hams who do volunteer their time and services during crisis situations, I think that a lot of misinformation about the overall usefulness and "essential-ness" of ham radio gets spread...
  7. Had it not been for the amateur radio operators in 2004 in Florida and again in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast during Katrina, little to no communication would have been received. As a ham myself, I have to wonder what you're basing this claim on?
  8. One thing to keep in mind is that you as a counselor do not really need to work directly from the MB Pamphlet. As long as you do not add, remove or change requirements, you can direct Scouts to other books, internet sites, videos, etc, if you think that those other resources would be more effective than the MB Book provided by the BSA.
  9. I have to wonder what the motivation for this really is. Various pet theories have been brought up on these forums, generally without much substance. But has National ever really stated what their goals are here, and why they've chosen to get there via this route?
  10. Does it strike anyone else as odd that we never hear these complicated debates over the other 11 points in the Law? I'm sure specific situations might present a gray area here and there, but its pretty easy to tell whether a Scout is generally trustworthy, obediant, cheerful or thrify, right? I got to wonder, what is so different about "reverent" that causes all this grief? Is it because the BSA is using too vague of a term to convey the actual quality they mean? Or because us unit-level Scouters don't take the time to fully think through what reverence really is, relying on what we wo
  11. dennis - You're right, there's never a time when we can conduct an activity closed to parental observation. But, consider when a recently crossed-over parent observes their son struggling to start a fire on a camping trip. If the adult decides to go down to his son's patrol site and start the fire for him, do we, as more experienced Scouters, not discourage the parent from doing so? Even though we have no legal standing for requesting that the parent stay away? Again, we're not trying to prohibit anything - that would be against the law, and I would think it would be illegal in many situat
  12. Seattle - Try looking at it this way: do we discourage parents from involving themselves in their sons' patrol functions? Do we discourage parents from permitting their scouts to miss meetings and camping trips? Do we discourage scouts from tenting with their parents? But, if push comes to shove, will we allow a parent to do any of these things if they insist on it? Yep, we have to. Same train of thought for the OA ceremonies. If a parent arrives and says, "I'd like to go to my son's ordeal ceremony," and an OAer says, "I'm not sure that's a good idea, and here's why...." -- how is t
  13. TAHAWK - Again, I have no problem with inviting Venturers to NYLT. I guess ideally I would have set it up where they were guests at a Boy Scout-specific training course, and have a separate Venturing-specific training course to meet their unique needs. For me, its not about the color of the uniform shirt, the gender of the participants, or any other superficial issue. In my opinion, up until now the goal of NYLT was to train Boy Scout youth leaders (specifically) by immersing them in a model Boy Scout troop for a week. They were getting what were essential generic leadership skills, bu
  14. TAHAWK - I guess all I can say is that I envy the situation you're in - our council has not afforded us any flexibility, or room to compromise on some of these issues. I'll try to withhold judgement until I see how the course goes this summer, but at this point I'm uneasy, to say the least. Seattle - That's almost exactly my position as well.
  15. Eagle69 - That's a possibility, and I don't know the specifics about that exact area. One thing to keep in mind is that the capability of a radio's signal to penetrate through terrain and obstacles is dependent on the radio's frequency and power output. Ham radio offers a variety of combinations of these pieces, and maybe there would be one that works in that area. Another thing to consider is that if the unit's trip plan had included a list of ham radio frequencies that they would use to attempt to communicate with the outside world, the search parties could have monitored those frequencie
  16. Mostly a case of those who were not familiar with the group to know what they were capable of, or a helicoptor parent. I'm not so sure I agree with this. I thought one of the reasons we asked groups to file trip plans was so that appropriate action could be taken should the group not arrive at expected destinations around the expected times. In this case, the Scouts handled the situation the way they should have, and deserve some kudus for putting the motto into practice. But, the other parents and leaders had no way of knowing that, and I think its responsible to escalate the issue wh
  17. TAHAWK - According to the new syllabus, all Boy Scout-specific terminology is being phased out. I'm guessing any references you are currently finding to Boy Scout specific terminology have just not yet been updated. The syllabus is very clear that the terms "Scoutmaster," "Troop," "Senior Patrol Leader," etc are to be phased out. Some of the new terms they are proposing are pretty hilarious, in my opinion. The SPL, for example, will now be the "Assistant Course Director of Youth Operations." The syllabus makes some fairly bold assertions about how this will actually strengthen Boy Scout t
  18. shortridge made a very good point, but I'd like to point out that one's reverence is something that can be very difficult to evaluate. Its fairly easy to tell when a Scout is or is not being courteous, or obediant, or thrifty. Reverence is much more difficult to directly observe. Its more of a mindset, rather than a character trait, if that makes any sense. So, given that adult leaders are asked, from time to time, to evaluate whether a Scout is living by the Oath and Law, what is the most effective way to evaluate reverence? Or should we try to evaluate it all? Maybe SMT224 could ju
  19. Fair enough Renax, but maybe a couple ideas for consideration: This being a Scouting-related message board, its common for Scouting-related abbreviations and jargon to be used, as most of the audience here is familiar with those terms. Maybe that's what caused some confusion initially - people were trying to decipher "PSa" in a Scouting context, and came up with nothing. And, when asked to clarify the abbreviations or jargon being used, that typically is done. :-) Also, Scouting is BIG - millions of members, hundreds of thousands of adult leaders, thousands of individual requirements for di
  20. Some of it might be context... Not entirely sure what you're asking for when you say "I need some ideas on a PSa for my boys", even knowing that "PSa" means Public Service Announcement...
  21. TAHAWK - This discussion might be better continued in that other thread, but... I've been involved with my council's NYLT course for several years. In my council anyway, we did not get the 2011 syllabus until after our staff development program started, so we're in a "transition" year where we will be adopting some of the new practices, with the target at this point to be fully transitioned by next year's course. So we too are still using the Boy Scouting-centric terminology, but will theoretically be transitioning off of that as well. Whether or not our council or the BSA will make a
  22. I know that it has been established that the BSA can discriminate based on belief in God when selecting adult leaders, but is there any basis for removing an 11 year old youth from the program for claiming to be an athiest?
  23. There's a fairly recent discussion on the 2011 changes to the NYLT program here: http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=311697 . In short, the program has now been opened up to Venturers, and most of the Boy Scout-specific terminology has been removed. The actual course content is, for the most part, unchanged.
  24. My personal preference is actually to conduct a flag retirement ceremony with as few active participants as possible. I think that having the opportunity to just watch, listen and reflect is more important than going through the motions of throwing pieces of the flag on the fire. At a camporee, it may be best to mainly rely on the event staff, and older scouts and adults. I also don't think a large flag necessarily requires a different or unique ceremony. But it will certainly requirement some unique logistics to pull it off. I'm thinking you really will need a pretty large fire to pul
  25. Sometimes simpler is better. You don't always need an elaborate ceremony. Some of the most moving ceremonies I've attended consisted of a single speaker offering some brief insight or reflection, then instructing the colorguard to retire the flags. Asking the audience to stand in silence, salute the flags, and then observe in silence as they are retired can itself be a powerful experience. As far as the enormous flag goes, that does pose a bit of a logistical challenge. I'm personally not really a fan of cutting the flag into pieces - that, in my opinion, involves too many complicatio
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